Lisl Weil

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Lisl Weil (born June 22, 1910 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; † February 6, 2006 in New York ) was an Austrian-American graphic artist and writer and belonged to the friends of the Zinkenbach painters' colony .

Life

Lisl Weil was born Ilse Elisabeth Weisz on June 22, 1910 in Vienna-Hernals , Palffygasse 20, as the daughter of the merchant Leopold Weisz, who had come to Vienna from the Upper Hungarian town of Leva, and his wife Eugenie, née Born black. Her father committed suicide in Vienna on January 2, 1936. Ilse Elisabeth Weiss was adopted by the Viennese businessman Isidor Weil in 1923 and has been called Weil ever since. She devoted herself to drawing very early on. When she was 16 years old, caricatures of her were regularly published in Viennese daily newspapers. She also worked as an illustrator, including for the theater magazine “Die Stunden” (now “ Die Bühne ”). For her friend Ralph Benatzky , she designed the title page for a sheet music edition of the " Weisses Rössel am Wolfgangsee ". In addition, she attended the arts and crafts school and performed together with a dance troupe, as well as her first exhibition successes. Lisl Weil regularly spent her summer at Lake Wolfgang and therefore came into contact with the Zinkenbach painters' colony. Because she was of Jewish descent, she had to leave her home Austria in 1938. Before her final departure from Europe to America, she spent a year in the Netherlands, where she worked as a set designer for a theater company.

In 1939 she and her family were brought to America by a law firm who knew their name from their exhibition work. A member of the Salzburg fashion company Lanz had opened a shop for traditional clothing on 5th Avenue in New York and Lisl Weil was able to work there as a window dresser and thus gain a foothold in the United States. The first few years were certainly not easy, but friends of the artist and her sister and son helped.

In New York, shortly after her arrival, she met her future husband, Julius Marx, and became an American citizen after they married.

plant

After becoming known as a cartoonist and illustrator in Austria, she devoted herself to another subject in the USA: Her husband had been able to win her over to illustrate children's books, and this was the basis of her new career in the USA. In 1946 she published her first illustrated children's book (“Doll House” by Marion Moss), and subsequently over 100 children's books were illustrated by her and also written by herself.

Due to the associated fame, as an enthusiastic music lover, she was able to give so-called “Young People's Concerts” together with the New York Philharmonic . The purpose of these performances was to bring classical music closer to the younger generation. Lisl Weil created oversized pictures parallel to the concerts, which were supposed to interpret the content of the music. Painting, music and dance were brought together in a “performance” to form a total work of art. These performances were offered in numerous states of the United States for 30 years. These performances were also recorded on television. Under the direction of Moritz Schindl, Weston Wood produced further filmic recordings in which Lisl Weil not only appeared as a painter, but also emphasized her appearances with expressive dance. One example is the film “ Sorcerer's Apprentice ” (1962, directed by Edward English), which is still considered a work of American television history today. These film documents are also considered early examples of didactic musical films for children. In 1963 and 1964, she presented and designed her own weekly children's program entitled “Children's Sketch Book”.

A highlight of her work is the design of a children's book on the life story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Here she not only sets a monument to the artist, but also expresses her love for music once again. One also gets the impression that she is remembering her homeland Austria once again with affection. This Mozart book, designed by Lisl Weil, was rediscovered by Ruth Kaltenegger and Christina Steinmetzer in the USA and brought to Salzburg. On May 18, 2006, the book was presented in the New Residence in Salzburg at the event "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1762. Mozart in Exile - or the story of a children's book". George Medina, Lisl Weil's nephew, made it possible to reprint the book in German.

literature

  • Lisl Weil , in: Ursula Seeber (Hrsg.): Small allies: expelled Austrian children's and youth literature . Vienna: Picus, 1998 ISBN 3-85452-276-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of children's and young people's books designed by Lisl Weil Lisl Weil ( Memento from August 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ "Mozart in Exile" [1]
personal data
SURNAME Because, Lisl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 2006
Place of death new York